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5 places to see cool art in Chicago

Anish Kapoor’s "Cloud Gate" in Millennium Park and Pablo Picasso’s 50-foot-tall masterpiece "Untitled" in Daley Plaza are just two of 700 pieces in Chicago’s public spaces. Lots of other must-sees await in the Loop.

Writer: Kit Bernardi

Chagall's The Four Seasons. Photo Courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

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Arts and Science in the Ancient World: The Flight of Daedalus and Icarus, a mosaic in the entry of The Savings of America Tower (120 N. La Salle St.), captures the Greek myth’s father-son in-flight moment before Icarus plunges into the sea. Local lore says Chicago artist Roger Brown’s winged pair reminds Loop financiers and politicians that what rises, also falls.

The Four Seasons, Marc Chagall’s mosaic at Chase Tower Plaza (10 S. Dearborn St.) uses thousands of glass and stone chips to create an allegory of time portrayed through the changes in season. Playful, pastel-color birds, fish, cloud-strewn skies and lovers tumble across the surface.

Chicago Fugue, an immense bronze sculpture by Sir Anthony Caro, had to be constructed on-site in the lobby of 190 S. La Salle St. Resembling a composite of parts of orchestra instruments, it twists 28 feet up into a gold dome.

Chicago, Joan Miró’s 39-foot-tall mixed-media sculpture, stands in a plaza between the Chicago Temple and Cook County Administration buildings (69 W. Washington St.). Originally titled Moon, Sun, and One Star, the combination of abstract shapes suggests an earth deity in female form.